You’re not a transit planner, you don’t get to tell Metrolinx where you want the stations to go. Just like condo residents don’t get to tell the structural engineers that they don’t like where a column comes through their unit. There’s some things you have to accept even if it’s tax payer dollars being used to build the project.
No, I think Ford is using the opportunity to erode the democratic process, making it easier to do things that are politically advantageous.
These are all good things though. While stuff like public hearings are important, these are the kinds of things that considerably slow down construction of lines, and any amount of streamlining is a good thing. Ideally this law would apply to all future projects but I digress.Here's a good breakdown:
THE PROPOSED BUILDING TRANSIT FASTER ACT: WHAT IT COULD MEAN FOR LANDOWNERS
The Ontario government has introduced legislation aimed at fast-tracking the property acquisition and expropriation process for four ‘priority’ projects – the Ontario Line, Scarbo...www.sokllp.com
We're not at a stage where we can take transit slowly and carefully. We are decades behind on our transit infrastructure, working on projects that should've been built in the 80s or 90s. Yes there are sacrifices that need to be made, but at least for the time being, until our transit infrastructure is up to par with what is expected in a city of our size, we have to take these shortcuts.
I think that is BS. I was involved with the DRL public consultations from start to finish. For every event, it was copied to multiple sites on different nights to make it easier for the public to attend. Everyone had their questions/concerns/inputs addressed. We never heard from any organization that participated that it was slowing the process down - Not Metrolinx, TTC, or municipal/provincial government. The DRL meetings were 1. presentation 2. questions 3. display boards with all kinds of people to help explain them. For the OL, all we have had was a pathetic "Open House" at the end of January with display boards and people to answer questions who did not know anything more than what was written on the low information boards i.e. a joke.
If I was properly compensated for my property then yes I would. And no, stuff like endless studies and community engagement programs absolutely do slow down construction. Compare the rate at which things are done in Toronto compared to a city like Moscow, where all they do is draw lines on a map and TBMs go vroom. As a result they build 11 stations and 17km of track EVERY YEAR. While I'm not advocating for Moscow levels of authoritarian control, its important to note the difference in speed in which stuff get built when you add a ton of extraneous elements during the planning stage. Also, please stop spreading the nonsense about DRL South being anywhere close to shovel ready. None of the engineering work even began when Ford got into Office.